


Parenting

by Seiya234



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2013-11-08
Packaged: 2017-12-31 20:09:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seiya234/pseuds/Seiya234
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I was a father, once."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parenting

**Author's Note:**

> This Ace is not NA!Ace or Comic!Ace or Big Finish!Ace. 
> 
> :)

He knew, like all parents eventually knew, that the time would come for Ace to make her own way.

And when she was 25 and that time came, he presented her with the Time Hopper he had made out of a motorcycle when he had white curly hair and wore velvet. 

(it was after he could travel again, and he had the Tardis, but well…that him was always a tinkerer.)

There were tears, there were hugs, there was a kiss on the forehead, and then she waved goodbye, and vroomed out into the Time Vortex.

He knew that he would miss her terribly.

He didn’t realize how much though.

——

He had gotten into the habit of making breakfast in the morning (or what passed for it in the Vortex) for the two of them. Some food and coffee was the best way to get Ace up and going.

So he made her bacon and biscuits for her to turn into little bacon sandwiches, and he would make himself some porridge, and the both of them would drink prodigious amounts of coffee (he would only ever drink it with her), and then he would do up her hair in braids for the day.

It was nice, to just sit, and talk about the things they had seen together in their travels, the best formula for nitro (after a year, and considering how useful it was, the Doctor had given up all form of pretense on that subject), basic theory of time travel, and so on.

The first few mornings after she left, he had put the bacon on to fry before realizing that there was no one there to eat it.

He was a vegetarian in this body, but for Ace, he made bacon.

—

She had laughed when she caught him sneaking her punk tapes out of her room.

"If you wanted to listen, all you had to do was ask!"

Then she put on a tape-“some guys I knew in Perivale, kind of crap”- on and they danced the afternoon away.

After that, Ace took to listening to her music out in the Console Room as opposed to her bedroom. It was nice to have something playing in the background, even if it could get a little vulgar at times, and Ace was…perhaps not the best singer.

When she left she had strapped on her bike the boombox he had helped her build after the second one was blown up. The bands they had listened to together just didn’t seem to sound the same on the record player.

—

Sometimes they had a close call.

Sometimes he scared her, with the things he had to do to save the day, the Storm under the hat and brolly and ridiculous sweater.

Sometimes she was just really wore out from all the running, empire toppling, explosions, and goop that glued two of her fingers together for a week despite the Doctor’s best efforts.

That was when she would go lay down, and eventually the Doctor would pop in with a glass of warm milk, or a squishy pillow, or just pulled up a chair next to her, and stroked her hair and rumbled softly until she fell asleep.

It was jarring, when he made a glass of milk without thinking to bring up to her, to find her room dark and cold, and then he remembered.

—

As grown as she tried to be, the Tardis Wardrobe always seemed to revert Ace back to the age of five.

Though really, several stories of clothes from every era of history, the breadth of time and space….who could blame her?

Occasionally when she as bored, she would go rummaging, and come back with new pins for her jacket, half of a scarf that Victoria had knit, go-go boots from Jo, one of the brash and bold shirts that Tegan had always favored once she stopped wearing her uniform all the time…

The first time or two she had looked at him shyly, wondering perhaps if he would object, but after he helped her adjust clothes and sew badges on, she realized he didn’t mind.

(it was good, even if it hurt a bit, to see the reminders of so many old friends out in the air again).

When he was in the wardrobe looking for a dark red waistcoat to go with his new darker jacket, he had found a badge for a band on Petralis that Ace had loved. He had ran out half way to the console room before he remembered that she wasn’t there any more.

-

He was a grandfather, and before that a father, but it had been innumerable years since he had really been either.

And then Ace had come, and yes she was a young woman who had seen and done far too much for her age when she joined him, but she was still fifteen.

It was nice, to have been a father again.

Even if being a father meant eventually letting go.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this wonderful prompt from zagreus-taking-time-apart on tumblr!
> 
> http://zagreus-taking-time-apart.tumblr.com/post/56505797395/sometimes-seven-still-makes-enough-food-to-feed


End file.
